Investigation on the laser-assisted jet electrochemical machining process for improvement in machining performance

Jet electrochemical machining (JECM) process can be used to machine conductive materials but there is a stray machining effect which leads to reduce the effectiveness of machining. To eliminate this problem, a hybrid laser-assisted jet electrochemical machine (LA-JECM) has been fabricated and utilized for experimental investigation. The support of laser beam with JECM improves the machining performance. Assistance of laser beam increases the temperature in the machining zone, which in turn changes the machining conditions and localizes effect. These localized effects increase current density and improve the machining performance. The experimental results during machining of Inconel-718 proved that the laser assistance increases material removal rate and decreases taper. Taguchi method-based design of experiment L16 (44) orthogonal array was employed, carried out the experiments, and optimized the process parameters for LA-JECM response characteristics. Experiments on JECM and LA-JECM have been carried out and acquired results are compared. The experimental results revealed that there is 29.7% increase in MRR; 33.2% decrease in taper when experiments were carried out with LA-JECM over JECM. The laser assistance with JECM improves the machining quality and reduces machining time.